The Power of Touch: Windows 8's Bizarre Commercials

Here is one of the wacky commercials Windows created to promote its new operating system. I find their use of humor and seemingly unrelated actions, like putting on makeup or carving up a watermelon, to be wildly successful.

 “We created these online-only social videos for the Asian market, where they were well-received," a Microsoft spokesperson told Mashable. "As with most of our global work, we are now sharing them on the Windows YouTube channel."

 The videos were accidentally posted on the company's general YouTube account this week. See the other two commercials on Mashable.

New Blog: etre epicurean

New blog! ...I know, like I really need another. This one is going to be filled with delicious recipes and the likes. I hope you enjoy it!

etre epicurean
http://etreepicurean.blogspot.com/


x,
Chace
The Fauxhattanite

Life of the Party

From travel to advertising and now to cooking. This blog can't settle on anything.

There's a friend of mine (well actually a few) who asks for cooking advice on occasion so I've decided to write down all my easy, delicious recipes here so he and others can bring these scrumptious treats into their own homes.

So let's talk guacamole...

Guacamole is fantastic with chips or on a sandwich, chunky or smooth, basic or spicy. I find that the chunky kind is better with chips while the spicy, smooth kind is better on a sandwich. One sandwich option that I (used to) love is guacamole with fillet on ciabatta or french bread.

Here's a recipe for great guacamole which I adapted from one on Epicurious.com.

Ingredients

• 2 ripe avocados
• 1 small onion, minced
• 1 garlic clove, minced and mashed to a paste with 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 - 4 teaspoons fresh lime juice (bottles is okay too for a quick fix)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• A heaping handful of cherry tomatoes, diced (chunky if pairing with chips)

Remove the pits and skins of the avocados and mash (coarse if pairing with chips). Stir in the onion, garlic paste, lime juice, cumin, cilantro, and tomatoes.

Epicurious says "The guacamole may be made 2 hours in advance, its surface covered with plastic wrap, and chilled."

The lime juice helps preserve that lovely green color. You can also use vitamin C crystals,  which is what I do. You can use any type of tomato. I just like cherry tomatoes because they are so sweet. Another addition you can make is minced jalapeño. Be careful not to add too much!!! Add 1/4 - 1/2 a jalapeño and then taste your creation. Add more as need be.

Enjoy!

Currently cooking to : Fiona Apple's cover of "Why Try To Change Me Now"
x,
Chace
The Fauxhattanite

Someone to Blame

The school year is over. I've graduated, turned 21, and moved home for a bit. Now what? Well I looks for a job and till then I write.

SO what do we think of BP's advertising campaign? The Americans (well the Dems) are in uproar while the Brits are supporting the now imfamous company.

You can watch one of the lovely little ads HERE where Tony Hayward talks about how BP is taking responsibility. BP has also set up a section on their website that also talks about the company's response to the crisis.

Is the campaign really that bad or are we just looking for someone to blame?

x,
Chace
The Fauxhattanite

Classwork

Some of the work I've done for class...

Feature Article

Click HERE for a version you can read.

Podcast

Vodcast

x,
Chace
The Fauxhattanite

Vroom, vroom!

So this week is the International Car Show at the Javits Center. I used to go with my dad when I was younger, and this year I decided to take him. Although I know it's a yearly event , I never would have remembered if it had not been for those advertisements on the subway.

 One of the coolest cars at the show: the Viper

I dismiss many of the ads that are posted in the subway cars because, usually they don't apply to me. Most of the time they advertise books I would never read or English classes I don't need to take. The ad for the auto show however was very useful. It made me think about how many times we see these ads when riding the subway. I know that when I'm sitting on the train I look to the ads for entertainment and distraction, so much so that they have become ingrained into my mind. I can actively recall ads for Monroe College or Dr. Zizmore's dermatological practice even though I will never go to these places.

One of the subway car ad campaigns that I really like is the Jameson campaign. I may be biased because I went to the distillery in Ireland and fell in love with the place, but the campaign is quite amusing and I see many commuters reading the ads. The copy is simple and funny. The ads are just the words in an old sailor script scrawl on an emerald green background with a picture of a Jameson bottle.

Here's some of the copy from the campaign:

“My son isn’t named after me, he’s named after my whiskey.”

“The first official tour of my distillery happened in 1780 when pirates broke in and drank all my whiskey.”

“A 400lb bear once tried to ravage a barrel of my whiskey. That bear is now a rug.”

“A king once offered me a generous gift if I revealed my distillation process. But then I thought, what am I going to do with Prussia?”

“A wise man asked me why my whiskey was triple distilled. I had to wonder whether the man was so wise.”

“In 1780 I was turned down by the Navy. They said I could better serve Ireland if I kept making whiskey.”

  Courtesy of KMerrittBlog

x,
Chace
The Fauxhattanite

You stole my heart in 1, 2, 3

Wow, it's been awhile. February ate me and spit me back out, but I'm still kicking.

So for spring break I went home and got to watch TV for the first time in ages. I forgot how much I missed just lounging on the couch and watching mindless TV show...and even commercials.

My new favorite set of ads are the ones for Amazon's Kindle. I recently saw the 2nd one and as a result got hooked on the first.

The best part? These ads are NOT professionally produced. These ads are a result of a contest that Amazon hosted where people could submit homemade commercials. The top five were really good, but the winning commercial stood out. The ad uses stop motion, a favorite technique of mine.

The creator, Angela Kohler, described her creative process:

"My boyfriend, Ithyle Griffiths, and I had just purchased Kindles and were doing a lot of traveling when we got the e-mail about the contest. We were constantly approached in airports with questions about them. The best thing about the Kindle was that we no longer had to each pack five books in our luggage, and could pick and choose what book to open every time we boarded a flight. We wanted our commercial to reflect all the different books you can carry around in one device. On a plane from Japan to Thailand, we brainstormed ideas and sketched out little stories that our character could fall into following different literary genres. We scribbled out pictures on napkins and made a flip-book, putting the little scenes in different orders. The day of the shoot, we gutted a pillow to make clouds and smoke (a last-minute addition) and did the commercial in one seven-hour take. Our friend Annie Little starred in the spot, Sharon Williams was in charge of the wardrobe, Rachel DeSimone did the hair and makeup and we all worked together moving the scene inch by inch between shots. After we assembled the 300 or so frames, Ithyle wrote some music to accompany the clip, and that same day Annie sent over some lyrics that just happened to fit perfectly. They recorded it together the next day. We are so thrilled to have won both prizes because it means our film resonates with both Amazon corporate and their customers. We are really looking forward to attending the Gen Art Film Festival, and having our video recognized at the event is definitely icing on the cake." From Two If By See

One of the collaborators, Annie Little, wrote and performed "Fly Me Away" for the original commercial. The second commercial in the series features the same stop motion style with a new song, "Stole Your Heart", from Annie Little and Marcus Ashley.

I find that much of user generated content is more interesting than industry created content, whether it's an ad, a program, or something else.

x,
Chace
The Faux-hattanite